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Original Image is a Born Digital from Accession 09-291. The original negative is tree.jpg. The image was featured in the July 2004 edition of the "Torch."

Summary:

The Smithsonian commemorated the 100th anniversary of the ground breaking for the Natural History Museum Building with a ceremony on June 15, 2004 which paid tribute to the memory of Solomon G. Brown, the Smithsonian Institution's first African American employee. Brown, who was at the 1904 ground breaking, was a self-taught natural historian and poet who worked for the Institution for more than 50 years. In his reminiscences, Brown expressed regret that the trees had to be cut down to build the new museum. In the image from the left, David Evans, Under Secretary for Science; Gail Lowe, senior historian, Anacostia Museum; Clara Ellis Payne and Darryl Brandon Payne, descendants of Solomon Brown; and Cristian Samper, National Museum of Natural History director.

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